Meet First Home Buyers Brett and Jenna

Introducing Brett & Jenna

Back in late August last year  Brett and Jenna contacted The First Home Buyers Club to arrange a planning meeting. After their first meeting they were thrilled to learn that had a sufficient enough deposit using their Kiwisavers, some other savings and a first home buyer subsidy to apply for a home loan pre approval. After gathering all the required documentation, The First Home Buyers Club had their loan pre approved and in October Brett and Jenna went house hunting!

House Hunting

Jenna and Brett were expecting it to be a hard slog finding a home they would like and could afford but to their surprise quickly found a lovely property that had been fully renovated in the Auckland suburb of  Massey. The only downside was that the property was to be sold by auction. Undeterred Brett and Jenna  completed all their due diligence on the property including getting a valuation completed so they could attend the auction. To their delight the valuation came in at $440,000.00. which was within their price range and within both the subsidy and Welcome home loan caps. Brett and Jenna agreed a maximum price they were prepared to pay along with a strategy for their auction. To their relief come auction day, there were only 4 other bidders interested in the property and after anxiously fending off the other interested bidders the hammer fell on their final bid of $422,0000 – Brett and Jenna were over the moon to have brought their first home at just under $20,000 less than the registered valuation.

Brett and Jenna’s kitchen in their first home.

Brett and Jenna moved into their new home in January. We recently caught up with them to check out their beautiful new home and to get some advice from them for other budding first home buyers – here’s what Brett and Jenna had to say;

Don’t listen to all the negativity about buying a home in Auckland, you can find nice homes for under $500K!

Have realistic expectations – yes you might not get your dream home on your first purchase but you can get on the property ladder.

Work out what are your must haves and what you’re willing to compromise on. You may have to make some trade offs.

Don’t go to your maximum amount of borrowing allowable. Work out a realistic budget that still allows you to have a life as well as a home!

Don’t look at homes outside of your maximum price range – stick to looking at what you can comfortably afford.

Jenna and Brett had these kind words to say about their experience with The First Home Buyers Club;

Brett and I just want to say a massive thanks to The First Home Buyers Club. That first planning meeting was our turning point. It made us realise home ownership was not out of reach for us, even in Auckland! Without your help we’d probably still be renting and not sure about the way forward.

Thank you so much for your support and for answering our many, many questions. It was invaluable to have someone we could trust to give us honest advice and the right information.

We are so happy to now be living in our very own home and cannot thank you enough!!